Any business today needs targeted visibility on Google. Most businesses know that this requires optimizing their website and Google Ads, but what most don’t know is that there is a third entity that also needs optimizing: their Google business listing. Formally known as your Business Profile, this powerful listing is a dynamic snapshot of your business that highlights your best features and...

When I was 13, I was way too dumb to understand Lord of the Flies. So were a lot of my classmates.

For several weeks, my ninth grade English teacher—bless your heart, Ms. Lawson—saw nothing but blank expressions on our thinly-mustached, Dorito-stained faces as she patiently prodded us towards grasping the symbolism that makes the book (as I now realize) so great....

Local SEO is essential to smaller businesses that operate on a regional, as opposed to a national, level. While national SEO focuses more on ranking in searches across the country, local SEO prioritizes appearing on SERPs in a specific location. This strategy relies on marketing your brand, products, and services to local leads and customers.

Google’s reach may extend across the world but, for some local searches, we need a trusted solution in our own neighborhood (and quickly)!

Searchers watching their sinks overflow can’t wait for a plumber from across state lines, and they’re hesitant to call a stranger to help them get into their car when they’re locked outside in the middle of the night.

Many businesses advertise on a city- and area-wide basis, but for some advertisers, this isn’t nearly local enough.

Like crime-fighting detectives in police procedurals triangulating a perp’s cell signal with technology of questionable credibility, some advertisers home in on areas of just a few blocks – or even a few streets – to find new customers.

Much to the relief of pretty much everyone, SoLoMo – a crude portmanteau of Social Local Mobile, and surely one of the most godawful marketing buzzwords in existence – failed to catch on and become part of digital marketing’s already insufferable lexicon.

Every year, as we spend more time on our devices and on the go, our search intent increasingly becomes more local. Google knows this all too well and it continues to give advertisers new tools to target local users, ad extensions to show...

For small, regionally focused businesses to run effective PPC accounts, a local search marketing strategy is key. While it might seem counterintuitive to limit reach with geographic parameters and keyword modifiers, in truth you’re mitigating the power of national competitors with comparatively limitless resources. Don’t allow size to act as an impediment to advertising success...

The key for any local business or SEO expert adapting in the local market is responding to the developing trends of post-digital user behavior. What new technologies, applications, or online services are now ready-at-hand to the user, and how can your business optimize itself towards that streamlined experience?

Everyone has their favorite Google app, and mine is – without a doubt – Google Maps. Sure, Google Now is incredibly impressive (and getting better all the time, thanks to Google’s artificial intelligence, RankBrain), but Maps is one of the apps that Google has spent the most time refining and improving, and the results speak...